What's in your 'head canon?'

[Reverend]

^Speak for yourself. I prefer the ambiguity of the original cut in which it's entirely unclear exactly what happened until the smoke clears and Greedo's head hits the table.

Think of it this way: you know that scene in just about every Samurai movie ever? The one where the two swordsmen dash at each other for a final blow, there's a flash of steel, they both stand stock still facing away from each other for a beat and then one of them just crumples as the other shethes his sword and cooly walks out of frame. Everyone's seen a version of that scene somewhere, right?
Westerns have a very similar version of this, but that's the essence of what I think Lucas was originally going for. I just wish he'd had the confidence to leave it alone and not worry about making it clear who fired first.
Indeed, the whole point of such a scene is that you *don't* know exactly what happened in that split second. All that matters is that when the dust cleared the hero is the one to coolly walk off, and in this case tosses the bartender some credits for the mess.

 

[Shawnster]

Brian Daley's stories are all in my head canon. Radio Drama, Rebel Mission to Ord Mantell, his 3 Han Solo novels.

I'm trying to rationalize the Radio Drama with Rogue One.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The only reason I give anything even remotely resembling a SHIT about who shot first, is because the version where Greedo shoots is simply badly edited.

I don't hate the SE's version of that scene because Greedo shoots (to this day, I honestly can't understand why I should care who is shooting at who, or when), I hate it because the re-editing is done very sloppily.

And I say this as somebody who greatly prefers the SE just on general principles.

 

[kirk55555]

My head canon has the whole new canon and TCW cartoon being a St. Elsewhere situation, with Alanna Solo dreaming it all. Someday she'll wake up, and it will all be gone

Seriously, though, as head canon I'll continue to count all KOTOR and KOTOR era stuff as canon until its explicitly disputed. I also like to think that Sabine's Mandalorians are just one branch, and the ones I count as the real Mandalorians (the Traviss ones) exist on some other planet (that they also call Mandalore, because why not) as a splinter group. Well, I'd actually call both Sabine's and the idiot pacifists the splinter groups and the Traviss ones the direct descendants of the KOTOR and pre-KOTOR era mandalorians. This is a lot more "head canon-y" then the KOTOR stuff, but it makes me feel better.

 

[Set Harth]

The only reason I give anything even remotely resembling a SHIT about who shot first, is because the version where Greedo shoots is simply badly edited.

Even well-edited revisionism is still revisionism.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Even well-edited revisionism is still revisionism.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

The only reason I give anything even remotely resembling a SHIT about who shot first, is because the version where Greedo shoots is simply badly edited.

I don't hate the SE's version of that scene because Greedo shoots (to this day, I honestly can't understand why I should care who is shooting at who, or when), I hate it because the re-editing is done very sloppily.

And I say this as somebody who greatly prefers the SE just on general principles.

I can only disagree that the whole "Greedo shoots first thing" was originally revised purely because Lucas didn't want Han to come off as a totally bad guy. But it doesn't fit with the context of Han's character, though; the entire REST of the film pretty much makes him out to be a somewhat dickish antihero who would TOTALLY shoot someone in the face without provocation if he really needed to. The revision is an attempt to make him into something he's not; the fact that it's done so sloppily just makes it really hard to ignore.

 

[Kor]

...
Think of it this way: you know that scene in just about every Samurai movie ever? The one where the two swordsmen dash at each other for a final blow, there's a flash of steel, they both stand stock still facing away from each other for a beat and then one of them just crumples as the other shethes his sword and cooly walks out of frame. Everyone's seen a version of that scene somewhere, right?
...

I so wanted to see this kind of scene with a lightsaber duel, perhaps in Mace Windu's final battle with Palpatine. But I understand that audiences had come to expect something more flowery and Wuxia-like from the PT duels.

Kor

 

[Reverend]

I can only disagree that the whole "Greedo shoots first thing" was originally revised purely because Lucas didn't want Han to come off as a totally bad guy. But it doesn't fit with the context of Han's character, though; the entire REST of the film pretty much makes him out to be a somewhat dickish antihero who would TOTALLY shoot someone in the face without provocation if he really needed to. The revision is an attempt to make him into something he's not; the fact that it's done so sloppily just makes it really hard to ignore.

I do wonder if part of the reason that made Lucas reconsider this has to do with his becoming a parent in the interim. Rightly or wrongly it does tend to change one's perspective on what children should or should not be exposed to. Indeed, IIRC this is pretty much what prompted Spielberg to have ILM replace the shotguns in E.T. with walkie-talkies. A move I don't think was by any means necessary, but I respect his motivations and the end result hardly tarnished the movie.

The Greedo scene is I think different in that it's not some inconsequential detail but something that speaks to the very core of Han's character. While I respect that he doesn't want kids thinking it's heroic to shoot first, the result just made Han look either slow or stupid.
This is why I prefer the original cut as it makes it more ambiguous and preserves his gunslinger mystique. If anything I'd say it'd have been better to change it *more* ambiguity and suspense. Like say a slightly longer shot after the blast, showing the smoke clearing a little before Greedo's head hits the table.

 

[Tuskin38]

"The Ballad of Nomi Sunrider"

I always thought that name sounded like something out of Fantasy

But then I remembered Star Wars is fantasy, plus 'Skywalker'.

 

[Reverend]

I always thought that name sounded like something out of Fantasy

But then I remembered Star Wars is fantasy, plus 'Skywalker'.

See also: Darklighter, Whitesun and of course, Starkiller.

Lucas came up with a several lists of names like this as he worked his way though the various drafts, some that were later reused in the movies, some not and some that would later be picked up in later materials. Starkiller being the most well known by far.
For example: the robot mercenary C-21 Highsinger from TCW appears to be a reference to "Kane Highsinger", a very early version of what would eventually become Kenobi. It gets confusing when that role is renamed "General Luke Skywalker" and "Kane Starkiller" becomes Annikin Starkiller's ex-jedi cyborg father. Seriously, the names alone make keeping the early drafts straight a nightmare!

But yes, I think it's a safe bet that "Sunrider" was a deliberate attempt to evoke "Skywalker". It's a shame they can't really use it anymore. Apparantly there's some trademark legal troubl. Something to do with a model of convertible Jeeps IIRC.

 

[B.J.]

This is why I prefer the original cut as it makes it more ambiguous and preserves his gunslinger mystique.

I never thought the original cut was at all ambiguous.

 

[Reverend]

I never thought the original cut was at all ambiguous.

Only in the sense that you don't explicitly see the blaster shots.
It cuts from a close-up on Ford to an explosion that takes up the whole frame (which if you pause you can tell it's Greedo, but those few frames are easily missed on first viewing) and the sound of two blaster shots almost on top of each other. Then it cuts to the two show and a smoking Greedo slumps forward dead. All of this BTW in less than two seconds.

As I said, it would have worked better in that regard if he had drawn out that last moment longer, but he seemed to favour a punchier edit. So far as I can recall, Lucas has always said they the intent was always that they'd both fired and the original cut seems to support this.

 

[JD]

I do wonder if part of the reason that made Lucas reconsider this has to do with his becoming a parent in the interim. Rightly or wrongly it does tend to change one's perspective on what children should or should not be exposed to. Indeed, IIRC this is pretty much what prompted Spielberg to have ILM replace the shotguns in E.T. with walkie-talkies. A move I don't think was by any means necessary, but I respect his motivations and the end result hardly tarnished the movie.

He's also said that he wouldn't have the main character from Close Encounter of the Third Kind leave his family if he made after having a family of his own.

 

[Set Harth]

Why would Greedo aim away from Solo?

The novel: The alien took the seat across from him, the muzzle of the ugly little pistol never straying from Solo's chest.

Solo doesn't move out of the way in the original version.

There's also no evidence of Greedo firing in the script.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Why would Greedo aim away from Solo?

The novel: The alien took the seat across from him, the muzzle of the ugly little pistol never straying from Solo's chest.

Solo doesn't move out of the way in the original version.

There's also no evidence of Greedo firing in the script.

That's why in my headcanon, Greedo has his own snappy comeback to Han's "Yes, I'll bet you have..." and is literally mid sentence when Han shoots him.

 

[Hippocrates Noah]

--Despecialized OT
--The basic plot outline of the PT as a backstory (a lot of it had been established prior to the OT anyway), but not really the films themselves
--Thrawn Trilogy. I had fun at TFA but not enough to take Thrawn out of my canon after 25+ years. Maybe as the trilogy progresses. I kind of accept Outbound Flight in the same sense as the PT.
--Rogue One. It didn't blow me away but it wasn't bad and it doesn't bother the rest of my head canon.
--Marvel Comics. I certainly don't accept the whole silly mess with Hoojibs and Leia's Zeltron pool boys, but there are a handful of great issues which capture the spirit of the films that I put in my head canon.
--Knights Of The Old Republic Games, the first two, I don't know the plot of the online game.
--And maybe 1 or 2 original stories I acted out with action figures as a child. Minus Mon Mothma piloting an AT-AT full of G.I. Joes for an assault on Castle Grayskull of course.

I've read a lot of other EU stuff, some of which I enjoyed and might go into my head canon if I could remember them better (like the X-Wing books) and other that I just plain don't enjoy enough to allow in, like NJO and Dark Nest. And then there's stuff like Splinter that I enjoy but just doesn't fit in very well.

 

[Tuskin38]

Minus Mon Mothma piloting an AT-AT full of G.I. Joes for an assault on Castle Grayskull of course.

But that sounds so bad ass.

 

[Hippocrates Noah]

But that sounds so bad ass.

It was a great day for the Rebellion, the Palpatine/Skeletor alliance was smashed and my mom made mac & cheese for lunch. Yub Nub!

 

[Venardhi]

At this point pretty much the OT (original or despecialized cut).
The broad strokes of the PT happened in some way shape or form, but not the way we see it in the films.
Rogue One happened mostly as shown but what we see is the new Republic's propaganda version of the events.
We'll see how the rest of the new trilogy goes before I make a final call on it.
I've mostly forgotten all but some key scenes and favorite characters of the 30-odd+ "Legends" novels I read in the 90s and early 00s so they're a vague cloud of "could have been."